PRODUCTION. FINDING MICHAEL
ASCENSION The expedition team had to make the most of small windows of fine weather to conduct their searches
“All the climbers would leave in the night for five to six days,” Taylor says. “Then they’d come back down, recharge, reset, wait for a window and go again. You can’t stay at the top of Everest for three weeks because you won’t survive the altitude for that long. Back at base camp, I protected the cameras from snow and rain with covers I made myself – I don’t like the ones on the market.” As Beard describes: “Nims was careful to pick the best weather window for each of the two searches, giving them the best opportunity to spend the required time in the inhospitable ‘death zone’ to carry out a thorough search for Michael. “He delayed the departure of the search team from base camp to hit the best window,” he says. “But even then, the high-altitude search team did face challenging conditions as you can see
in the film. It’s a testament to the search team’s skill and strength that they could continue to get shots in those conditions while so high on the mountain.” SOUND AND LIGHT Despite Disney’s backing, Taylor emphasises the importance of the ob-doc appearance of the film. This manifested itself in the basic approach to lighting. “For lighting, we had some LED Ice Light tubes,” says Taylor. “I occasionally lit some stuff with them, but we wanted to keep it natural-looking. At night, we complemented practical lights with the Ice Lights, but for many night scenes I used the Red’s low-light capabilities to work solely with head torches and camp lights. “For the master interviews, we spent a lot of time trying to set a style. It ended up being three cameras – a close-up and a wide shot at a fairly obtuse angle, using a lot of negative space. Then a close-up from the side at 90° to the subjects’ faces, on a little motorised slider that slid around as a tight shot. I lit it with an Aputure 300D key light and tungsten fresnel lamps for rims and highlights. We had a Sony FX6 at base camp as well – occasionally Tom had to run around and shoot different
“It’s a testament to the search team’s skill and strength that they could continue to get shots in those conditions while so high on the mountain”
FAR REACHING The shoot used Angénieux EZ zoom lenses for versatility but a ‘prime-like’ filmic look
12. DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
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